


The Weight of the Galaxy

by Grapecatte (Lux)



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Warframe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/M, Gen, no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:07:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21954136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lux/pseuds/Grapecatte
Summary: A tenno discovers a Mass Relay in the Void and against the advice of her cephalon, activates it and finds herself in a system unlike her own, and more opportunities to do what tenno do best, whilst unintentionally causing a panic for the Citadel Council.After Horizon, Shepard is given four more dossiers by the Illusive Man, and while these don't seem too out of the ordinary (as far as the Illusive Man's recruitment dossiers go), they will lead her to meet a rather unusual individual and her companions.In the meantime, the ancient and malevolent evil that are the Reapers are plotting and planning, the defeat and loss of Sovereign at the Citadel two years ago being a mere setback for them.
Relationships: Excalibur Umbra & Operator, Thane Krios/Female Shepard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	The Weight of the Galaxy

Unknown Orokin Installation, the Void  
[Date Unknown]

The facility was ancient and long-disused, long before the Orokin’s creations and experiments turned against the Empire and shattered its leadership, leaving the remnants of the Empire to flounder and slowly fade away. It was situated near an immense construct, long abandoned before the Orokin even learned to venture from out of their home planet.

The two constructs couldn’t be more dissimilar, yet similar at once, with the whites and golds of the Orokin, all curves and angles and designed for aesthetic and function, contrasting with the dull grey and silvers of the unknown construct, curved, yet with its own straight edges, the palettes of both somehow managing to contrast yet also merge with the colours of the Void.

The object had long confused the Orokin when since they first encountered it, and though scientists worked and tampered on it, theorising how such an object came to be in the Void in the first place, it was of little concern to the Orokin as a whole and when the scientists already realised what it was used for, the Orokin were at war. Infested, Sentients, Tenno. They all warred against the Orokin at some point in the latter days of the Empire, the last finally striking the death blow to it. The wars had forced the scientists to other projects, the Empire caring little about the structure and the secrets it held, and so it lay abandoned once more, it’s secrets hidden and unknown. Until now.

A lone humanoid clad in black armour with gold accents stood at one of the terminals in the Orokin construct, rapidly tapping away on the terminal, an argument between itself and whoever, or whatever they had on voice comms. Ever since they had found fragments of information in an old Orokin vault, they had been fascinated by the possibilities that could arise from such a discovery, the new destinations, new materials and components to collect and loot, and new and interesting creatures and people to meet and kill or kill for.

“ _ Ordis still thinks that this is a terrible idea Operator. What if it’s a trap? What if it leads to Sentients or Infested or even more Orokin? _ ” a voice from the comms called out, higher pitch yet obviously masculine, the tone obviously worried.

“It will be fine Ordis. According to the Orokin data, they never even got it working, so there’s no need to worry about any of that. The Orokin were fairly certain that it didn’t lead to the Tau System, and they already had interstellar travel of their own before we killed them all. Besides the Infested were created after the Orokin developed interstellar travel and were sealed away in our system before the Grineer thought it a great idea to unseal them in recent years. Plus if it does lead to Orokin, we’ll just kill them again!” the armoured figure said cheerfully, in an attempt to comfort the one on the comms, Ordis. Oddly for the adult and masculine-looking form, their voice was feminine and sounded far younger than their form would have suggested.

“ _ You are not doing the best job at reassuring Ordis, Operator _ ” Ordis replied.

“Look, even if it’s a trap, we’ll get through it just fine. Last time I was caught in a trap. I won and killed one of the Grineer Queens while I was at it.” the figure, the Operator said confidently.

“ _ Ordis is still not convinced Operator, if anything Ordis is more worried about this, why not see if there’s -- anyone to kill -- any work available _ ”

“Well credits are running low but I don’t think Nef Anyo would be happy with me getting some other Tenno together and just wiping the floor of the Index with the Corpus. On the other hand, that sounds fun, I should do that more often. Let’s go do that!” the Operator said as she continued working on the terminal.

“ _ Ordis would prefer it if the Operator would go make credits off Grineer -- and kill them all -- reduce their numbers. _ ”

“Killing Grineer doesn’t pay as much pestering Nef” the Operator replied. “And we’ve got enough supplies and equipment to last us a while, but getting some extra credits won’t hurt. We’ll return here in a couple of months.”

“ _ If the Operator insists _ ” Orids said, defeated. He knew the Operator long enough and experienced her stubbornness and iron will enough times to know that there was nothing he could to that could convince her otherwise.

As the Operator continued to meddle with the terminal, lights on the non-Orokin construct slowly lit up, rings between the two arms which were once still began spinning again, and slowly the ancient relic started up for the first time tens of thousand, if not hundreds of thousands of years. On the other side, millions of kilometres away in a completely different system, another of the constructs slowly started up again, and the observers of a small scientific station in the system took notice with surprise, excitement, fright and apprehension. Within minutes of the relay seemingly starting and opening on its own, the Citadel Council convened a meeting, within a day fleet was scrambled to observe the newly reopened relay, with strict orders to try and hail any ship coming in from the relay, only to open fire should any new ships open fire first. The Council, and particularly the turians, were keen to avoid another Relay 314 Iincident.

* * *

Unknown Relay, [Redacted] System, [Redacted] Cluster, Attican Traverse  
[Redacted] 2185  
Turian Military Vessel  _ Caevius _

Vellio suppressed a yawn as he scanned over the computer and systems, even glancing out of the ship’s window. He had been out in this sector of the galaxy for over a month and a half, watching a suddenly-active relay and despite the initial excitement and worry of the circumstances that brought him and the fleet out here, those initial feelings had worn off and were replaced with boredom as they sat around and watched a relay, nothing coming out of it since it was activated, and only a couple of suspected pirate or mercenary ships needing to be 'gently' dissuaded from approaching the relay.

He yawned again, not even trying to suppress it when the computer bleeped at him, an alert for when the relay was expecting an outcoming ship. He sat bolt upright, heart thudding in his chest, others on the bridge also assigned to monitor the relay also jolting upright, taking a few moments to understand the alerts before a grey ship jolted into sight. There was a brief, organised panic as superiors were awoken and alerted to the events that had just occurred.

“Open up the comms, now! Try and hail that ship and hold your fire! We do not attack that ship unless fired upon” the captain, Altoria ordered. She’d be damned if she was to be the fool to start a second Relay 314 Incident or First Contact War as the humans insisted on referring to it. She knew that the humans would never let up if they did so again, as they still brought up the Relay 314 Incident nearly thirty years on.

They watched with nervousness and anticipation as the grey ship, shaped like almost like a fish emerged from the relay, the ship itself appeared to be a freighter going by its size, yet its design unknown to even the oldest and most seasoned veterans on the ship.

“Spirits, does anyone recognise the design of the ship?” one of the turians on the bridge called out, everyone momentarily taken aback by the possibility of being in a First Contact situation.

The captain was the first to snap out of her awe, pointing at one of the comms officers on the bridge. “Hail the ship, try and establish communications with it!”

“Yes captain” the officer replied, hastily hailing the strange new ship. “Comms should be open, say your piece captain”

The turian captain nodded to the officer. “This is Captain Altoria of the  _ Caevius _ . A turian vessel operating here on behalf of the Citadel Council. Do you read me?”

There was silence as everyone waited with anticipation over the response. Would it be gunfire, or would there be a peaceable solution to the outcome? Many hoped for the former.

“I repeat, this is Captain Altoria of the  _ Caevius _ , speaking on behalf of the Turian Hierarchy and Citadel Council. Unknown ship, do you copy?”

There was a burst of static in response, some garbled words barely making it through the comms, yet were unintelligible.

“Send a shuttle to the ship, attempt peace first and use violence as a last resort. Avoid fatal injuries, we’ll never hear the end of it from the humans if this encounter ends in fatalities” the captain ordered.

As soon as the captain barked out her orders, there was a collective gasp from the bridge, the sounds coming from the bridge crew with views of the window looking out onto the ship or were in charge of the consoles where the ship blipped on the radars.

“What is it?” the captain ordered.

“The ship captain. It, it just  _ vanished _ ” Vellio explained.

“What do you mean vanish-Spirits help us” the captain started, realisation dawning as she saw out the bridge windows and saw that the ship was gone from sight.

“Exactly that captain. It’s vanished from sight, vanished from our tracking systems. Just...gone” Vellius elaborated.

“But how? Are you sure it didn’t go back through the relay?” the captain asked.

“Negative ma’am, we would have seen it go through. It’s just gone.” 

“No ship can just vanish, even the latest and most advanced military stealth drives mask only the ship’s heat and emissions, and what cloaking we have available isn’t even enough to cover an individual for longer than a few seconds”

“Could it be Geth?”

“Negative, the ship matches no known Geth designs, captain” another turian answered.

“Were we recording this?” the captain asked

“Yes captain we were, to cover ourselves just in case anything was to go sideways”

“Get the recordings ready, and get us in contact to the Council as soon as possible” the captain ordered.

* * *

Near the Unknown Orokin Installation, the Void  
[Date Unknown]  
Tenno Orbiter [Data Corrupted]

“Well here we are again Ordis, ready to go through?” a small figure, scarcely more than a child in appearance and voice, at the navigation console of the ship queried. Near her, a tall, masculine appearing individual clad in grey armour augmented with golden decorations stood near, his left hand resting on the black and gold blade sheathed on his hip.

“ _ Ordis does not believe that he’ll ever be ready to go through, Operator. I still think that this is a terrible idea _ ” a voice almost coming from the ship itself answered, sounding rather nervous.

“Think of the possibilities out there though! This could lead us to a whole new system, and who knows what we could find there!” the small figure, the Operator, said with a great deal of enthusiasm.

“ _ A trap, or Sentients, or- _ ”

“Or maybe more profit” a gruff voice spoke out from behind the Operator, as a human-ish, male walked up into the navigation. “Don’t worry, I'll give you a generous finder’s fee, tenno”

“And storage fees, and transport fees. Don’t forget Darvo, this is my ship you’re on” the Operator replied, crossing her arms as she turned to face Darvo.

“And I’m the one who’ll peddle and market the goods mutual benefits for us, yes?”

“I’m sure I’d be able to sell the goods regardless”

“But would you get as good a deal without me to help out? No, and that’s why I’m here, tenno”

“Whatever you say Darvo” the Operator said, shaking her head as she turned back to the navigation console. “Everything all ready Ordis?”

“ _ Against my better judgements, yes Operator. Though I still must voice my own objections to this, Ordis still thinks this is a terrible idea! _ ”

“Well better us than Corrupted Corpus or Grineer, or so help us, Infested” the Operator pointed out.

“Clem, clem!” a rough voice called out from elsewhere in the ship.

“I’m with Clem, this whole Void place is setting us on edge” Darvo said “So we leaving or what”

“They’ve a point Ordis, the Void corrupts most other beings, tenno and Warframes being the exception” the Operator pointed out.

“ _ If the Operator insists _ ” Ordis glumly replied. “ _ Setting approach for the non-Orokin device, we’ll be using it in 5...4...3...2...1… _ ”

“Brace yourselves!” the Operator called out, Darvo clinging onto one of the consoles in the orbiter’s cockpit, and the grey and gold accented armour clad individual in the room who had remained silent during the entire exchange reached out and held onto the Operator, keeping her upright and stabilised as the orbiter was hurled through space as the ship interacted with the strange device, shaking and rumbling as it rushed at speeds it had never before travelled at. In what felt almost instantaneous, the ship was no longer in the Void, but was drifting in normal space, near another strange installation, identical to the one used in the Void.

Alarms blared on the ship, lights flickered and the Operator could less hear but more  _ feel _ the annoyance and disgruntlement from Helminth, even sealed away in the med bay as he was, while Ordis was fretting in the background, quickly tallying up the damage done to the orbiter.

“Is everyone all right?” the Operator asked, the armoured figure giving her a nod in reply as she looked around, waiting to hear from the others.

“A little rough, but I’ve been through worse. Barely” Darvo said.

“Clem clem, clem! Clem” Clem called from within the ship.

“ _ Operator? _ ” Ordis called out, his voice drowned out by Clem.

“Clem’s also fine, but uh, he may have accidentally fallen on something when we jumped” Darvo translated.

“Clem. Clem clem clem” Clem called out again.

“ _ Operator! _ ” Ordis called out again, and again his voice being drowned out by Clem.

“I, uh hope those Ayatan statues can be easily repaired” Darvo added.

“Well. They’re easily replaced” the Operator said.

“Sorry about that tenno” Darvo said apologetically.

“Accidents happen, besides that jump was pretty rough, I guess I was just used to the jumps from Rail Junctions”

“ _ Operator! _ ” Ordis called out a third time.

“Hmm? What’s wrong Ordis?” the Operator said, her back still turned to the ship’s window.

The armoured figure which had remained silent looked over at the window, and let out a low growl, reaching out to the Operator and turning her to face the window, the Operator’s eyes widened in shock as she saw a fleet of ships not too far from the orbiter. Their designs were not known to her, but she did not have the best experience of other, far larger ships of the Grineer and Corpus that she would routinely infiltrate and run amok in.

“Ordis, any idea which faction they belong to? They don’t like Grineer or Corpus” she asked.

“ _ Negative Operator. Ordis is unfamiliar with these designs _ ” Ordis said.

There was a short burst of static coming from the radio of the ship and a strange voice spoke. The Operator hurried past Darvo to get to it, trying to listen to what was being said, but between the static of the radio and the radio itself cutting in and out, the Operator could barely hear what was being said, and what little she did hear of it was in a language completely unknown to her.

“Can you open comms to them Ordis? I don’t like the look and number of those ships, and I would prefer to avoid trouble”

“ _ A bit late for that Operator _ ” Ordis murmured, “ _ and a lot of our systems were damaged in the jump, but Ordis can try to send out a message _ ”

"Please try Ordis, but also prep those stealth drives we put on the orbiter, if they're trouble I want us to be out of here as soon as possible"

_ "Understood Operator, against better judgement, Ordis shall attempt to communicate with these unknown ships” _

“Be ready to activate the stealth drive as well” the Operator said, “and maybe prepare to jump again, I’d rather put some distance between us and whoever these guys are if things go bad”

“Sound advice tenno. These guys certainly don’t look friendly” Darvo said as Ordis opened up communications with the unknown ships.

_ “This is Cephalon Ordis, myself and those on our ship bear no ill will. We repeat, this is Cephalon Ordis, myself and those on our ship bear no ill will” _

The Operator and all in the orbiter waited to hear whatever reply would be returned if any, the Operator frowning as no immediate answer was given.

_ “Apologies Operator, the transmission systems may have also been damaged in the jump” _ Ordis said apologetically.

“It’s all fine Ordis, cloak us. If we can’t communicate with them, then I’d rather not risk getting into a fight that could get us killed” the Operator said.

_ “The first good idea you’ve had since we found that strange installation in the Void” _ Ordis murmured as he deployed the orbiter’s cloaking systems,  _ “so now can we go back where we came from?” _ he asked hopefully.

“No way!”

“Are you kidding!”

“Clem!”

Ordis sighed at the objections from the trio of the Operator, Darvo and Clem  _ “Ordis supposes that it was too much to hope for. What next then?” _

“Stay cloaked, they’re going to leave sooner or later. I hope” the Operator replied, looking at the fleet and then at the relay. “Or we could use that again and see where it would lead us”

“Oh dear, Clem brace yourself and try not to break anymore of the tenno’s Ayatan sculptures” Darvo called out, an embarrassed ‘Clem, clem’ calling back in reply.

_ “Oh Operator, Ordis doesn’t need to tell you how much of a terrible idea that sounds...not like you would listen to Ordis about this anyway…” _ Ordis said.

“Sorry Ordis, but this whole situation is just so exciting, our world just got a whole lot bigger, and I want to see as much of it as I can before the Grineer and Corpus come along and ruin everything...uh no offense to present company” the Operator replied.

“All good tenno, I regard myself as being more of an independent agent than as a part of the Corpus” Darvo said, waving his hand dismissively as he grabbed onto one of the orbiter’s consoles in anticipation for another jump.

“It’s now or never Ordis” the Operator replied, grabbing onto the tall, grey figure who had remained silent the entire time, the figure grasping her in return.

_ “Don’t say I never warned you” _ Ordis grumbled as once again the orbiter was hurled through space and to a new location.

Instead of a fleet of unknown ships, those in the orbiter were greeted with the sight of a distant structure which appeared to be built into and extending from a large asteroid, giving the whole thing the appearance not too different from a jellyfish.

“Well, there’s no fleet of ships waiting for us, that’s a positive” Darvo said.

“You’re not wrong Darvo. Ordis what are the orbiter’s systems like?” the Operator asked as the figure released her.

_ “Not much better, Operator. We will have to seek repairs for the orbiter before we attempt anything else. Ordis is not confident that the orbiter would be able to make another jump like that, at least not for a while” _ Ordis replied.

“All right then, make way to that structure in the distance, with luck it could be similar to the relays back in our system”

_ “There is the issue of not being able to understand what anyone is saying, Operator” _ Ordis cautioned.

“And the issue of they probably won’t take our money” Darvo added.

“The first one...would be a bit of a problem, but I’m sure we’ll work it out somehow, as for the second, well it shouldn’t be too hard for me to find work” the Operator confidently replied.

Ordis kept any misgivings to himself as he limped the orbiter to the structure.

* * *

Unknown Relay, [Redacted] System, [Redacted] Cluster, Attican Traverse  
[Redacted] 2185  
Turian Military Vessel  _ Caevius _

The bridge crew sat stunned as the relay reacted in a way as if a ship was using it, yet everyone on the bridge could see that there was no visible ship using it. There was a stunned silence for several seconds as they tried to process what they had seen, the strange ship emerging from the relay, the strange ship disappearing before their very eyes and sensors, then the relay being used without a visible ship using it. This caused several of the crew to come to two conclusions, 1) the ship had returned to whatever system it returned from or 2) the ship had jumped to another system in the galaxy, and they had no idea where. More addendums to the report for the Council were going to be needed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm honestly just eyeballing what the orbiter is capable of, since I don't think there's really much known about it, at least not what I've been able to dig up, also yes, this will be a touch less serious than in canon, I blame the discussions and jokes and memes between my friends and I about the sheer amount of destruction we tenno get up to in Warframe, and how much our group loves to spam the Winde-I mean the Index.
> 
> Shepard will be appearing in the next chapter! I'm still writing her intro chapter out, and didn't want to drag this first chapter out too long.


End file.
